Hello everyone, My name's Question_Mark and I'm a Phantom Mania addict. I've been playing PM for just about two months now. I got my first Master grade about a month and a half ago and I've been trying to push the limits even further. Just yesterday I finally played the first ever MasterK game, reaching 513 in about 3'10". I play one-handed using the Numpad, and use SRS, Bag randomiser, Hold, and 3 Previews - not the standard ARS, but it's kind of necessary for what I'm doing. I invented a technique I call Playing Forever V3.1 or PF-V3.1, so named because it succeeds Playing Forever V2, which is still somewhat incomplete. PF-V3.1 permits a bravo solution in 5 bags that loops, although it has the drawback of being a bit complicated. As a nice perk, I ended up scoring 9 ACs in this run. Cheerio! -QM
From MY perspective, words can't fully describe how awesome this is! Congrats QM! Can't wait to see MV and MO!
It's really quite amazing how broken the Bag randomizer is when exploited like this. What are the level/time requirements for grades in this mode? Does Phantom Mania keep Death/Speed Mania's 3:25 level 500 torikan?
Be that as it may, it's still not easy by any standards. It took a solid 2 weeks to "break" Bag in the abstract, and figuring out how to place the pieces in real time is a problem in itself. There are also lots of decisions to be made that causes the method to branch out - and some cases which are hard to spot with only three previews, and impossible with less. And the torikans (see below) aren't kind either; I was stopped at 300 once when I thought I was playing fast but was 6 seconds too slow. There are three torikans in this mode, at levels 300, 500, and 800. Master requires reaching level 300 within 2:28. MasterK requires reaching level 500 within 3:38. (Slightly slower than the T.A. Death torikan.) MasterV requires reaching level 600. MasterO requires reaching level 700. MasterM requires reaching level 800 within 5:23. GrandMaster requires reaching level 999 with at least 2 Tetrises per section before 900, at least 1 Tetris between 900-999, and at least 31 Tetrises in total. I believe the green line GM is awarded for topping out during the credit roll and orange line GM is awarded for surviving it.
I am definitely appreciative of SRS accomplishments. Especially for invisible play, which I'm no good at.
I have this headcanon where the requirements to get M and higher rankings in TGM4 are to play Phantom Mania after reaching level 999 in Master mode with an m9 grade. Part of it makes sense if you think about it: - In TGM1, to get GM, you had to (roughly) not only make high line clears, but also beat the game fast enough. - In TGM2, that only gets you M. To get GM, you have to survive the invisible roll. - In TGM3, surviving the invisible roll only gets you M. To get GM, you have play well enough in the invisible roll to clear an absolute minimum of 20 lines, then do that at least five times (min. 100 invisible lines). - In TGM4, doing that only gets you M. To get GM... I'm imagining in my head that in TGM4, after getting m9 or some equivalent and reaching level 999, the level counter suddenly falls back to 0 and now you're in Phantom Mania for another 999 levels. Have fun getting GM from there. It would certainly match the ridiculously escalating difficulty per series quite well.
